As long as people have been having babies, they have been making guesses as to the gender of their baby. Gender prediction is, in some respects, probably one of the oldest practices known to humankind. As science has progressed, we have become more and more able to make an accurate gender prediction, as well. Still, there are many myths that have grown up around the idea of predicting your baby’s gender.
Many of the myths about gender prediction have to do with old wives’ tales. For example, one old wives’ tale says that if you are craving sweets during your pregnancy, you will have a girl, whereas if you are craving sour foods like pickles, you will be having a boy. While your cravings aren’t truly related to your baby’s gender, this old wives’ tale does make one point that has been scientifically proven: pregnant women will often have cravings.

There are other myths about gender prediction that are not as obvious as the old wives’ tales. For example, there was a time when even the medical community thought that a fetal heart rate over 140 meant that you were going to have a girl. It has been demonstrated in the last couple of decades, however, that this is not necessarily the case, and that the link between fetal heart rate and your baby’s gender is a myth.

There are also myths about gender prediction that sound like they might be scientific, but actually are not. The Drano test is one of these. This test proposes to predict your baby’s gender by mixing your urine with Drano, and examining the results. While it sounds almost scientific, the fact of the matter is that there is nothing in your urine that will interact with the Drano to accurately predict gender.

Ultimately, the best methods of gender prediction tend to be ultrasounds and genetic testing. An ultrasound is, of course, only as reliable as the ultrasound equipment and the technician, but ultrasounds still have a decent gender prediction success rate. Genetic sampling is the most accurate, but generally not done solely for gender prediction as there are certain risks involved in the procedures.